Last week, FIRE sent an open letter to the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and issued a press release about how OCR’s recently issued guidance to colleges and universities, which mandates that they lower the standard of proof to a "preponderance of the evidence" standard when adjudicating student disciplinary matters concerning sexual harassment or sexual violence, represents a huge blow to students’ due process rights. Roger Pilon of the Cato Insitute was only the latest to praise FIRE for our opposition to this development at Cato @ Liberty.

Wesleyan University recently reformed a policy that would have punished students for "participating in social activities" on the property of any "private societies" not under Wesleyan’s control. However, Wesleyan’s new Campus Housing Policy isn’t much better, punishing students for using houses or property of unrecognized Greek organizations as residences, or taking meals and participating in social activities at such houses or property. FIRE wrote a press release about this development on Monday and Will’s views on the restrictive policy were reported by Charlotte Allen of Minding the Campus.

Jaclyn wrote a blog post yesterday about the successful implementation of Free Speech Walls at several universities. Students at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) faced many bureaucratic obstacles in order to host the event, including a requirement that their wall withstand up to "hurricane force winds." An article by Andrew Kaluza on Students For Liberty’s blog details how the UTSA students fought for their display, even citing FIRE’s Guide to Free Speech on Campusto protest the university’s plan to impose a multi-thousand dollar insurance fee on the group in order to set up the display.

Deborah D. Thornton of the Iowa City Press-Citizenshed light (reprinted in The Modern Whig Party) on the rigid speech restrictions imposed on students at Iowa’s three Regent-governed schools: the University of Iowa (UI), Iowa State University (ISU), and the University of Northern Iowa (UNI). Adam is quoted in the article, discussing the importance of fighting disfavored speech with more speech of one’s own, rather than through government censorship and speech codes.

Staying in the corn belt, Adam’s speech, "Making Your Entire Campus a Free Speech Zone," delivered on April 7 as part of First Amendment Day at Iowa State University (ISU), was mentioned in an article by The Blackhawk about the day’s activities.

In California, FIRE’s suggestions to the Committee of Academic Freedom and Professional Ethics (CAFPE) at Pasadena City College (PCC) for how to properly draft a policy on rallies and protests weren’t reflected in the policy passed at a Faculty Association (FA) meeting on April 27. Sara Medina of The PCC Courier (PCC’s student newspaper) described FIRE’s and other parties’ opposition to the new policy. Fortunately, due to FIRE’s criticisms, as well as structural and procedural complaints from actors within PCC about the policy and the manner in which it was passed, the policy is now up for review at an FA meeting on May 16. (Note: The article incorrectly claims that FIRE provided CAFPE with representation. FIRE does not provide legal representation or legal advice.)

Finally, Logan Penza of The Moderate Voice, in an article detailing his opinion that the progressive left’s abandonment of its core principles regarding free speech has had dire consequences on college campuses, noted that FIRE is a good resource for people wishing to learn more about the suppression of free speech on campus.